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Fruit and vegetable processing comes 6th in terms of energy consumption in the agri-food industry. At the same time, 88.4% of the industry's final energy consumption structure is thermal energy, which depends heavily on electricity consumption. In addition, fruit and vegetable processing has a significant impact on the environment due to consumption of significant amounts of water. Reducing these three indicators simultaneously would increase the efficiency of the process while improving environmental protection. This paper proposes neural models of thermal energy, electricity and water consumption for selected major fruit- and vegetable-processing plants in Poland. These models were the basis for formulating a multi-criteria optimization task. Optimization of thermal energy, electricity and water consumption was carried out using genetic algorithms. The optimization results in the sense of Pareto can be the basis for the use of sustainable technology in selected fruit- and vegetable-processing plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of ongoing climate changes and the current geopolitical situation, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are continuously gaining popularity in many countries. Objectives related to environmental protection and the use of RES set by different countries all over the world, as well as by the European Union (EU), are becoming priorities for many. The increase in the installed capacity of photovoltaic systems has been growing steadily for several years, leading to the creation of new systems accompanying PV installations; this phenomenon has also been observed in Poland. This paper presents a photovoltaic system in the form of a bicycle shed next to a school building as an example of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) without connection to the power grid. It was shown that the energy consumption profile should be properly correlated with the production profile, otherwise significant losses occur. Alternative methods to improve the correlation of production and energy consumption by using SCADA systems or building automation to properly manage the electricity generation and consumption installation were also proposed. Furthermore, it was shown that adopting a fixed discount rate in financial analyses can distort the picture of real profits. An analysis of the changes in the NPV ratio using variable discount rates was carried out when analyzing the entire life of the solar plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we aim to identify the determinants that profoundly impact renewable energy sources development in Poland. To this end, the authors have conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses of Poland's renewable energy sector. In this paper, we demonstrate an original approach considering the different development levels of the given sector across provinces (voivodeships). It uses panel data from the Local Data Bank of the Statistics Poland on electricity production from renewable energy sources in individual voivodeships in Poland from 2005 through 2019. The study confronts the results of previous studies and sheds light on the situation in Poland—specifically, upon the changes that have happened over the ten years (2010–2019). The qualitative analysis shows a negative correlation between energy consumption and the share of renewable energy sources in total energy production. Evidence shows that favorable changes are underway in the energy production structure: RES share is growing and by degrees satisfying energy demand, and there is growing potential of energy entities in Poland. Furthermore, the analysis shows that R&D and total expenditures on environmental protection and water management investments do not significantly affect the development of RES. A dynamic panel data model has been used to analyze the group and time effects on the dependent variable. The findings confirm the existence of the persistency effect and indicate positive effects of total installed electric capacity (IEC) and household electricity consumption (HEC). Nonhousehold electricity consumption (NHEC) has a negative effect on the endogenous variable, i.e., the renewable energy sources share in the gross final energy consumption (RESS). The research results may be applicable as recommendations for energy efficiency policy development based on renewable energy sources depending on the RES development level in the regions of Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]